Unexpected News
by Vivien Lestrange
Summary: Spring 1980. Alice visits Saint Mungo's to be checked for dark curses because a fellow Auror noticed her swollen belly.


**Disclaimer:** The rights for Harry Potter and anything related don't belong to me. No money is being made with this story.

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**Unexpected News**

Alice walked into the crowded reception area of Saint Mungo's. The place seemed to become more and more chaotic. There simply weren't enough people working here to take care of all the sick, wounded, and frightened immediately.

Alice would never have come here on her own accord. Her superior Cordelia Savage had sent her. She had noticed that Alice's belly was unnaturally swollen in the changing room. "You need to have this checked. Might have been hit by a dark curse you didn't feel right away."

Alice had to follow the orders of her superiors and that was why she was there now. She didn't bother joining the line. Alice knew where she had to go. If there was something wrong with her it had to be Spelldamage, fourth floor.

She walked up the stairs which were rather crowded a well, most of the people here were visitors who had come to see their relatives and few green-clad Healers in between. Alice's right hand firmly closed around her poplar wand. There had been a time when Alice had felt very differently about Saint Mungo's. She had liked to come here; it had been like an island of peace in this sea of war. A place in the safe keeping of people who had sworn to ease pain, heal injuries and save lives in a world where so many did the opposite. Alice had lost this pretty illusion like so many others before it. Lord Voldemort's hand reached the hospital as well.

At first, it had seemed liked coincidence. About two years ago, the truth had become rather obvious though. Patients who had already been recovering died; others simply didn't get better even though their ailments should be curable or suffered from inexplicable symptoms. Most of these strange cases were in some way connected to the resistance against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. There had to be an oath breaker, maybe even more than one. A Healer who had chosen to use his knowledge to do harm on Voldemort's orders.

The Ministry had found their suspect quickly. Rodolphus Lestrange came from a family known to be interested in dark magic; he had been a Slytherin at Hogwarts and was married to a woman who made no effort to hide her hatred for Muggles, Muggle-borns and everyone else she considered inferior. He was also known to have done things with potions no one had seen before. Lestrange had been dismissed and put under a Memory charm which made him forget the knowledge about healing and harmful magic, potions and plants he had gained at the hospital. For the first weeks afterwards, the incidents had stopped and everyone congratulated themselves for a case well-solved.

Two months later, it had begun all over again.

Alice climbed the last set of stairs. She knew Rodolphus from school as well as from work and hadn't believed he was the culprit in the first place. Neither had Dumbledore actually. She had tried to bring the two wizards into contact with each other but she had failed. If he hadn't been a Death Eater back then, Alice was sure he had become one by now. She wasn't certain if he hadn't manipulated anything while still working here anymore, but he definitely had not been the only one.

Alice's husband Frank led the "Task Force H" that tried to find the people responsible but so far, they hadn't been successful. Frank's ever-present distrust against the hospital had increased strongly though, the situation seemed to be direr than they had anticipated. So far, Frank had been unable to gather any convincing evidence against another Healer. There was no one else with obvious connections to the dark side. There were many things which went wrong though. Mysteriously lost files, wrong medication given to patients, even patients that had seemingly been confused with each other and lots of inexplicable ailments in enemies of Voldemort who came to Saint Mungo's. Alice, Frank and most other Aurors familiar with the investigations weren't sure if they'd ever leave Saint Mungo's alive again if they had to seek treatment here.

Alice opened the door leading to the Spelldamage Department with a heavy feeling in her stomach. Her suspicions seemed to prove correct at the sight in front of her. An Inferus was tattering down the corridor, its arms outstretched. Alice reached for her wand. Fortunately, she knew how to deal with this kind of thing.

She cast a second glance at the being in front of her and blushed with shame. It wasn't an Inferus but a patient. Truly, his gaunt, deadly-pale face, wispy white hair and skeletal-thin arms didn't make him look alive but he was, if only just. The nameplate on his dressing gown showed Alice who he was. Ambrosius Montgomery had worked at the Department of Mysteries and had taken his position as an "Unspeakable" seriously when the Death Eaters had tortured him for information about a year ago. He had been here ever since, one of those patients who didn't improve even though they should or at least, others in a similar condition had before.

An almost inhuman scream shattered the silence when Montgomery fell to the floor in convulsions. Alice quickly cast the Mederi-charm and called for a Healer. After using it a few times, her charm did what it was supposed to and the man remained quietly on the floor, his breathing very irregular.

Finally, a harassed-looking Healer arrived. With a sigh, he bent over Montgomery, cast a few spells and lifted him up with a levitation spell. Without a word to Alice, he returned him to the Janus Thickey-Ward for permanent Spelldamage. Ever since Belenus Derwent, the head of the department had resigned in protest over Lestrange's dismissal, Cruciatus curse patients were being kept there once more and not in the Constant Surveillance ward. In case of Montgomery, this would definitely be better, Alice thought. If she hadn't intervened, the man might have died. They couldn't count on Aurors with a knack for healing spells being there in time though. She waited for a moment if the Healer returned so she could tell him so but he did not. She checked the name on the sign beside the door. Might be interesting for Frank.

Reluctantly, Alice walked towards the wards for dark magic injuries. On the way over there, she wondered what Rodolphus would say if he knew how the Cruciatus curse patients were being treated or rather not treated now. They had been his area of responsibility and it seemed as if they hadn't found anyone to do this after he had left.

He would probably be glad that the path to Voldemort's victory was even easier this way, Alice thought as she checked the two wards. One of them was overseen by Hestia Jones. Alice breathed with relief. Hestia was a fellow member of the Order of the Phoenix and definitely trustworthy or at least as trustworthy as someone could be nowadays. The patients in her ward all looked well-cared for.

Alice was lucky. Hestia had time for her right away and led her into the examination area which was separated from the rest of the ward by spells and curtains. Alice quickly explained why she was there and Hestia asked her to remove her robes and any piece of underwear covering her belly. When this had been done, the Healer looked at Alice first before palpating the swelling of her body. If there was any dark magic involved, she'd be able to sense it this way.

Alice was quite surprised when a smile appeared on the Healer's face.

"Well, Alice, I hope you did not tell Frank that you came here to have your belly checked for dark curses. It's nothing like that. You're going to have a baby."

Alice just stared at her, disbelievingly. A baby? This couldn't be. Not now, in the middle of this war when she might be killed every day. She had always taken the anti-contraceptive potion, hadn't she?

"You're pretty far along actually," Hestia said. "I'm really surprised you didn't notice anything earlier. Haven't you felt any changes in your body?"

Alice thought hard. Her period had stopped, yes, but she had simply blamed it on the stress. The same was true of certain bouts of sickness and her increasing weight. She had believed it was because she tended to eat much for stress relief, a tendency that had actually started rather recently. Her endurance had decreased as well but she had always forced herself to go on despite of this. An Auror couldn't display such weakness.

"I did but I never guessed..." she heard herself mutter.

The smile one Hestia's face waned. "It's not a Death Eaters or something, is it?" she asked, a sudden seriousness in her voice.

"No, no," Alice was quick to assure her. She knew that the Healer wasn't accusing her of treasure but hinted at a consequence of war most people weren't comfortable discussing openly. "It's just unexpected."

She had never considered bringing a child into this world at the moment. She didn't want her child to grow up in a world ruled by fear, pain and death. The Aurors and the Order needed her at the moment. She wasn't like Molly Weasley who preferred to remain on the sidelines, looking after her steadily growing number of children. Fate had decided however and now she would do anything in her power to keep the child safe. Hopefully, her work and exposure to dark magic hadn't already done any damage. She really should have listened to the signs of her body.

"Do you think something's happened to the child? I've worked as an Auror all the time?"

"I didn't notice anything wrong but we can make some more examinations of course."

Half an hour and many spells later, Alice knew that she would soon give birth to a boy who didn't seem to have suffered any damage due to her work as far as they could tell. A boy, the Longbottom heir Frank's family kept going on about. Who knew, maybe she had been meant to give birth to him and continue the family line before it was too late.

Her life would have to change now but she had long since gotten used to the idea that it could quickly end or be permanently changed by dark magic injury. This was a much more pleasant reason for change and she surely would get used to it.

Hestia asked her to inform her superiors at work as quickly as possible but Alice would of course, go to Frank first. He would never forgive her if Crouch, Moody, Cordelia and Scrimgeour learned about her pregnancy before he did.


End file.
